Allopatric and Sympatric
Case studies of both Allopatric and Sympatric speciation
Allopatric:
The example I’ve chosen for allopatric speciation is that of the African elephant. For many years, the African elephant was regarded as one species, due to similar features and characteristics, as well as living all on the same continent. However, recently scientists have classified them into three different species, due to morphological and DNA differences. Instead of just being the African elephant, it is now classified into West African elephants, Central African elephants and the Forest elephants. This happened because before, the elephants could interbreed and produced young that were healthy, but many turned out sterile, and so the different ‘groups’ of elephant separated geographically to different parts of Africa, and so were able to be classified into different species.
Another example of allopatric speciation is that of the North American Black bear. Once living in harmony in North America, it was able to interbreed, and so was classified as one species. However due to fragmentation of its habitat, different groups of the bear scattered around North America, causing the groups of bears to adapt to their new, different habitats, causing both physical and genetic differences between the groups. These new differences now prevent the bears from interbreeding, showing how the change in geographical positioning has caused them to stop interbreeding, and showing allopatric speciation.
The final example of allopatric speciation is that of the Galapagos Finches, more commonly known as ‘Darwin’s Finches’. When on his trip to the Galapagos, Darwin saw many different birds, but assumed them to be completely different, namely blackbirds, gross beaks and finches. However, upon later investigation he found for them to all be finches, but each slightly different, through physical characteristics, and so he found them to be in total twelve different species.
Sympatric:
The first example of
Allopatric:
The example I’ve chosen for allopatric speciation is that of the African elephant. For many years, the African elephant was regarded as one species, due to similar features and characteristics, as well as living all on the same continent. However, recently scientists have classified them into three different species, due to morphological and DNA differences. Instead of just being the African elephant, it is now classified into West African elephants, Central African elephants and the Forest elephants. This happened because before, the elephants could interbreed and produced young that were healthy, but many turned out sterile, and so the different ‘groups’ of elephant separated geographically to different parts of Africa, and so were able to be classified into different species.
Another example of allopatric speciation is that of the North American Black bear. Once living in harmony in North America, it was able to interbreed, and so was classified as one species. However due to fragmentation of its habitat, different groups of the bear scattered around North America, causing the groups of bears to adapt to their new, different habitats, causing both physical and genetic differences between the groups. These new differences now prevent the bears from interbreeding, showing how the change in geographical positioning has caused them to stop interbreeding, and showing allopatric speciation.
The final example of allopatric speciation is that of the Galapagos Finches, more commonly known as ‘Darwin’s Finches’. When on his trip to the Galapagos, Darwin saw many different birds, but assumed them to be completely different, namely blackbirds, gross beaks and finches. However, upon later investigation he found for them to all be finches, but each slightly different, through physical characteristics, and so he found them to be in total twelve different species.
Sympatric:
The first example of